When providing medical care or services in a hospital setting it is very common for a medical professional to carry needed supplies in a medical tray to a patient. For example, nurses starting I.V.s or doing point of care testing or phlebotomists taking blood will often carry needles, blood collection tubes, biohazardous waste containers and other items to a patient's bedside in a medical tray that retains such items in a basket.
Medical trays used in a hospital setting are often relatively specialized items tailored to the particular service being performed. For example, a phlebotomist's tray generally has basket with high sides to prevent content spilling, a central handle for carrying the tray, and internal ribs that not only provide mechanical strength but also retain various items such as needles in a specific position.
While generally successful, prior art medical trays have at least one major drawback. To use, they must first be placed on a surface such as a patient's bed, bed stand, or bedside table. These items are often contaminated with various bodily fluids and possibly by communicable bacteria or viruses. Thus, simply placing a medical tray on a surface near a patient to perform a service may result in transmission of pathogens causing nosocomial infections.
Since the foregoing problem is well-known, hospitals sometimes require medical service providers to use mobile carts to support their medical trays. While this may address the specific problem of reducing the transmission of pathogens, it creates several issues. First, mobile carts are not readily moveable up and down stairs. This forces a medical provider to use elevators to move from one floor to another. In turn, that can dramatically slow down the providing of medical services, particularly when one or more elevators are out of service, overused, or simply slow. Mobile carts are also difficult to maneuver around patient tables and I.V. stands, and hospital rooms are sometimes cluttered.
Therefore, medical trays having support legs would be beneficial. Even more beneficial would be medical trays having support legs that selectively telescope in to be out of the way to allow the medical tray to be placed on a medical cart or other surface and for storage, and that selectively telescope out to provide elevated, stable supporting platforms. Even more beneficial would be medical trays having telescoping legs that telescope in and out and that further incorporate a one-handed release mechanism that selectively enables telescoped-in legs to telescope out to provide elevated, stable supporting platforms.